Marvel delivers another another entertaining superhero film with the release of Captain America: The First Avenger. As the final piece of the puzzle falls into place to set up for next summer's The Avengers, fans of Marvel films will be getting more and more excited. Captain America is a good movie as both a period piece from WWII and as a superhero movie. It plays out better than Thor, but not as good as Iron Man.
Chris Evans, who gave us the Human Torch in Fantastic Four, plays Steve Rogers. Steve is a 90 pound weakling from Brooklyn, who despite serving as the neighborhood punching bag for years is determined to join the army. His determination catches the eye of Dr. Erskine (Stanley Tucci), who is looking for a candidate for his super-soldier serum. Steve goes through the procedure and comes out a tall, ripped version of himself. Steve takes on the persona of Captain America only to raise bond money for the war by performing on stage with dancing girls. Eventually, Steve dons the uniform for combat outside of the army's orders.
Meanwhile, Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving), the head of the Nazi deep- science division is planning his own form of world domination using a cube from Oden's treasure room. Yes, the same Oden from Thor. Now you see how all of Marvel's films are set in the same version of the universe. Anyway, Schmidt's private army hail to him oppossed to Hitler, and they will follow his orders above all else. Captain America successfully rescues a group of captured soldiers from Schmidt's headquarters, resulting in a promotion to active duty for the Captain. After this Captain America forms a squad and carries out special operations throughout war torn Europe, leading to a showdown with Schmidt aboard a plane bound for the USA.
Like I said earlier, Captain America is better than Thor in it's carrying out of superhero fantasies in film format, but it's still no where near as good as Iron Man. Chris Evans is good as Steve Rogers and will be an interesting character to play off Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth and Jeremy Renner in next year’s The Avengers. One of the best qualities of The First Avenger is the period setting and the ways in which it differs from other comic book films. The time period and characters are great, but unfortunately the plot is quite predictable.